Chester A. Crocker Quotes

Success in foreign policy, as in carpentry, requires the right tools for the job.

We have generals working on worst-case scenarios; we need statesmen on best cases.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

Diplomacy is a frequently neglected imperative.

Foreign policy is like plumbing. You never notice it till it breaks and then all hell breaks loose.

I am neither frustrated nor planning anything other than being the best Secretary of State I could be.

Diplomacy and coalition-building are hard work and not easy for any president.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

Richard Holbrooke is known for many things, but I will remember him as an impressive, sometimes even intimidating diplomat who understood the value of culture in diplomacy.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

By dedicating so much concentration to the issue of security, bilateral matters pass to a secondary level.

And we ought to work our diplomacy first and I think it's a reason it's going to respond increasingly to our diplomacy particularly with the president's direct involvement in the peace process, and I think that's extraordinarily important.

You can’t outsource diplomacy. You can’t do it unless you do it.

If you operate any kind of major diplomacy, you must run some risk.

We have to develop preventive diplomacy.

Diplomacy [is] ... the art of restraining power.

Part of the genius of diplomacy is to resolve issues before crises come along.

Negotiations are the most essential tool of statecraft.

For foreign policy it is necessary to have men who inspire confidence.

A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

The Obama administration rarely demonstrated the ability to shift gears and change policy in its first year. Even in the face of historic events such as the continuing demonstrations against Iran's regime, it stuck devotedly to prior plans.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.

I loved being Secretary of State, that's probably evident to everyone who watched me.